uh... urnang. You must not have been following the story. The good citizens of California did vote for Prop 8 which specifically denied gay couples the right to marry. The court of appeals simply declared it wrong based on our constitutional rights.

Congratulations to Kweku's neighbors for stepping up to help. Kweku (and his gardens) are beautiul gems of our community--to think he could be blamed for contributing to city blight is absurd. This is a prime examble of the city's shortsight and obsession with curbing blight without considering the details.

The increased crime, in the University neighborhoods, is directly related to a increase in sub-standard rental properties largely occupied by well-to-do students with nice cars, bicycles, laptops, iPhones, and other easily fenced items—not to mention themselves being vulnerable to violent crime while walking in the neighborhood. Students living off-campus are a transient population, by nature, and don’t “typically” assimilate into the community affairs, neighborhood associations/crime watch, vote in local elections, or have any responsible role in maintaining the appearance of their neighborhoods. Streets are littered with garbage cans and cars haphazardly parked on the sidewalks, in front yards, and in the planting zones; these all create physical and visual obstacles for pedestrians/residents and diminish safety. Improved lighting and street patrolling can only do so much and until residents become more responsible and aware of their surroundings and who their neighbors are, the area will continue to be prone to crime.

The fact that this is occurring at the hand of affluence and higher education is also a crime in itself. The Universities have taken a laissez faire attitude to hold students accountable for their off-campus actions, or to work with the surrounding community to improve conditions; absentee landlords charge high rents for properties that are not maintained and over-crowded eyesores. The City turns a blind eye to building out-of-code and chronic zoning violations.

The solution for improved safety is for an improved neighborhood with more accountability on the part of all stakeholders. Residents (students and permanent residents) need to develop relationships and good neighbor policies with each other; the Universities need to be accountable for the problems affecting their students and locals alike; and landlords need to be held to standards, set by the City, and to maintain their properties in a reasonable manner.

The increased crime, in the University neighborhoods, is directly related to a increase in sub-standard rental properties largely occupied by well-to-do students with nice cars, bicycles, laptops, iPhones, and other easily fenced items—not to mention themselves being vulnerable to violent crime while walking in the neighborhood. Students living off-campus are a transient population, by nature, and don’t “typically” assimilate into the community affairs, neighborhood associations/crime watch, vote in local elections, or have any responsible role in maintaining the appearance of their neighborhoods. Streets are littered with garbage cans and cars haphazardly parked on the sidewalks, in front yards, and in the planting zones; these all create physical and visual obstacles for pedestrians/residents and diminish safety. Improved lighting and street patrolling can only do so much and until residents become more responsible and aware of their surroundings and who their neighbors are, the area will continue to be prone to crime.

The fact that this is occurring at the hand of affluence and higher education is also a crime in itself. The Universities have taken a laissez faire attitude to hold students accountable for their off-campus actions, or to work with the surrounding community to improve conditions; absentee landlords charge high rents for properties that are not maintained and over-crowded eyesores. The City turns a blind eye to building out-of-code and chronic zoning violations.

The solution for improved safety is for an improved neighborhood with more accountability on the part of all stakeholders. Residents (students and permanent residents) need to develop relationships and good neighbor policies with each other; the Universities need to be accountable for the problems affecting their students and locals alike; and landlords need to be held to standards, set by the City, and to maintain their properties in a reasonable manner.

For kitnkaboodle... University programs, like LSU's school of landscape architecture, are meant to educate future design professionals so they can go on to design projects like 'Reinventing the Crescent'. The lions share of the $30M budget includes construction costs; design services will only be a fraction.

What the article rightly points out is that landscape architecture is about designing the built environment on a wide variety of scales and disciplines and it's success should be measured on how it serves the needs of people (and the place itself). Too often landscape design is an afterthought to architecture or mistaken as 'grounds maintenance'.

For kitnkaboodle... University programs, like LSU's school of landscape architecture, are meant to educate future design professionals so they can go on to design projects like 'Reinventing the Crescent'. The lions share of the $30M budget includes construction costs; design services will only be a fraction.

What the article rightly points out is that landscape architecture is about designing the built environment on a wide variety of scales and disciplines and it's success should be measured on how it serves the needs of people (and the place itself). Too often landscape design is an afterthought to architecture or mistaken as 'grounds maintenance'.

Exactly Alsports. I'm growing weary with politicians who won't listen to experts on topics they know nothing about but are legislating on them--especially when they use falsehopes of sick people and stand to make drug companies $$$ for drugs that don't work. I'm sorry that Avastin wasn't found to be an effective treatment.

I'm a fan of everything about New Orleans, but the PoBoy Fest is a bust. Hellacious crowds, mediocre PoBoys, expensive, and not equitable--VIP passes? for what? first in line to stuff your fat faces and a catwalk to look down on everyone else? And what about all the airplay about "all restaurants--no caterers/vendors? Mostly caterers/vendors and lots of bad food. Oak Street is too good to trample on. I did like Flow Tribe. When food and entertainment are so good here everyday, why bother?

SeenThisB4.... there actually is a list of criteria for determining eligibility for historic designation of a structure and the importance of the architect and many aspects of that architecture (style, materials, etc) are considered. The association of the structure with history, a historic event, and/or important historic people are a few others. Moving a structure from its original location is usually detrimental to its eligibility. The bottom line, in this type of debate, decisions such as these should be made under the advisement of professionals in the field in question, in this case preservationists.

If that had been done, the school could have been allowed to remain at its rightful location and the architects of the medical center would have just dealt with its location, just like they have to deal with staying within the boundaries of property lines and other zoning requirements. The Poydras Center wrapped around the old Whitney Bank Building on Poydras Street is a great example of doing just that. Make it work!

Transforming the vacant Sewell Cadillac building into a downtown grocery/destination location is an fine example of how adaptive reuse and recycling of our existing building stock emeliorates blight more effectively than demolition.

The building is beautiful and preserves the character of the neighborhood, the vive inside and on the street is exciting, it will serves many parts of the city beyond the CBD.

And yes, we need more services like this in our communities like the Bywater/9th Wards and Marigny.

oh for the love of god... local shenanigans at their best. People think bike paths are a political foil of our city's future and now a prominent figure pays out a slippery deal with a property of questionable worth. If it looks like a payoff... it's probably just business as usual (here at least).